Town Square

Buying from bankrupt automakers

Original post made
by Phil, Pleasanton Meadows,
on Apr 30, 2009

What are the thoughts on buying from a broke automaker? Chrysler filed for chapter 11 protection and GM will be owned 50% by the government and 39% by the union. The best and brightest in terms of engineering talent are leaving GM in droves to work in the "private" sector so I suspect Toyota and Ford sales will go through the roof..........thoughts?

Posted by Pleasanton Parent
a resident of Pleasanton Meadows
on Apr 30, 2009 at 9:27 am

If you can wait it out a month or two to better understand what is going to happen with GM and Chrysler I think that would be a wise move. If you have to buy now, I would look at one of the more stable auto manufacturers. They're all hurting, so deals can be found everywhere. To me the risk isn't worth it when I can get a deal at any dealer. My $0.02.

Posted by Phil
a resident of Pleasanton Meadows
on Apr 30, 2009 at 9:35 am

I just listened to Obama's speech and after listening I do not believe I would ever buy a GM or Chrysler product again as I do not believe in the long run these vehicles are going to be safe. Additionally, I do not believe our taxpayer money should go to support failure.

Posted by Phil
a resident of Pleasanton Meadows
on Apr 30, 2009 at 3:19 pm

Obama said in his speech that Chrysler financial will be absorbed into GMAC which is now a seperate company and not part of GM and GMAC will be funded by the government to lend money for individuals wanting to buy either a GM or Chrysler product. He is vilifying the bond holders for not taking concessions even though their debt (6B)should give them 50% of the company and did not say a thing to the union who did not give up anything other than taking stock for pension payments and still make $61.00 per hour. In a nutshell the taxpayer is going to be paying health and retirement payments for workers who are making over $61.00 dollar per hour. Does not seem right at all.

Posted by Anonymous
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on May 1, 2009 at 9:11 am

I have not bought an American car since 1993. They are not reliable, and now with Obama and the government wanting a say on what the new car should be like, I am planning to continue to stay away from American cars.

I would be willing to bet that the next step will be the government offering incentives with our money for people to buy either GM or Chrysler products and if we refuse high registration fees etc. on other vehicles.

Russell, that plant in Fremont, NUMMI is only running 3 days a week and the GM product they make is a Pontiac vehicle which will be discontinued so how long do you think that plant will be operating? I suspect not long. By the way the only european company that have been subsidized by there governments were Vaxhall (England) and Fiat a few years back in Italy before GM bought a big chunk of them. Vaxhall got to expensive for the English government because of high costs and poor quality that they pulled the plug.